The 48-hour drama is over and a case of frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms have been filed against David Chua Lim, Jr., who reportedly shot nurse Ephraim Nuñal during a road altercation last Sunday. But this brings certain questions as to why a case of frustrated murder rather than frustrated homicide was filed by the Cebu City Police Office?
As for Lim's self-defense plea crafted by lawyer Orlando Salatandre, I dare say that it is a very weak defense. As far as David Lim Jr.'s companion the Filipino-Japanese lady, Miss Tamae Takahashi, we have no idea whether she also has surrendered to the police, after all, she too is a witness to that incident. While this case is effectively solved, I'm sure that with our snail's paced system, it would take years before justice can really be served.
Meanwhile over dinner, my friends told me that the month of March didn't augur well for David Lim Jr. The story being peddled around is that the earlier incident that we wrote about supposedly involving his father David Lim Sr. at the flyover in Archbishop Reyes Avenue, who allegedly struck the motorcycle of Philip Pogoy Sr. and killed him, was reportedly David Lim Jr. and not his father. The father had to "rescue" his son from that accident and told the police that it was him who was behind the wheel of the Nissan GT sports car.But since the Pogoy family already settled this case, at this point, it will remain a rumor.
How did this rumor spread? Netizens were able to check out the Facebook page of David Lim Jr. who have sort of explained his actions on that road accident involving Pogoy, but since then, they have removed their Facebook accounts. That remark in his Facebook page brought more questions as to why David Lim Jr. needed to explain his side on that incident. But as luck would have it, in less than a month, David Lim Jr. got himself involved in this road rage incident and has finally landed him behind bars.
With his money, we shall see David Lim Jr. out on bail if not today or very soon. So the big question remains, if the Lim's settled the case with the Pogoy family, will they also settle with Ephraim Nuñal. With his wounds still in the process of healing, I'm sure he is not in the mood to settle. But like what I said, court cases are tedious and takes years of following up. For sure when the wound heals and the wounded pride disappears, then we could be seeing a settlement of this case in the future.
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President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte's remark to the plan by the People's Republic of China to build structures in the disputed Scarborough or Panatag Shoal, was that he could not stop China for doing this construction because it is pointless to confront China and risk going to war with her. While we do agree with the observations of the President, we should at least inform China that their doing so would displease the Filipino people!
In fairness to Duterte, when China built that reclaimed military facility complete with docks and a runway, the Aquino regime didn't even have a slightest idea that this was happening under their noses until the US gave us a satellite image of what China has been doing. Yet, former president Aquino did not respond when told about the artificial island that China made in the West Philippine Sea.
So what good is the supposedly new (but they are actually 40-years old) Navy ships that we bought from the US Coast Guard if we do not even confront the Chinese and at least try to stop making those illegal structures in these disputed territories? Are these Navy vessels merely for show? Enough for the tough talk by Duterte who doesn't want to confront China when he must do so!
But thanks to Justice Secretary VitalianoAquirre II he said that the Department of Justice would file a formal protest on this plan by China to build facilities in Panatag Shoal. At least it doesn't make the Duterte administration seem helpless in confronting China with this issue.
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@moscom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com